


adust

by TheFreakWithTheWings



Series: Word a Day [8]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Force Ghost(s), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: adust: scorched, burnedObi-Wan had never liked to think of himself as cruel. Practical, yes. Ruthless, sometimes.





	adust

Obi-Wan had never liked to think of himself as cruel. Practical, yes. Ruthless, sometimes. The Clone Wars had been a rather harsh instructor on both the dangers of the Dark Side and the darkness that lurked in a normal person's heart. Despite all he'd done, all of the things that would keep him up at night for decades to come, none of them had ever approached the horror of this day.

The shocking emptiness as almost every Jedi died at once, the confusion and panic when his clone troopers - _Cody_ \- shot him and he had to escape back to Coruscant, the numb horror that had seeped in once he'd seen the massacre of the Temple and what had become of Anakin, the surprise of Padmé's pregnancy, and now, to tie it all off, he'd been forced to either cut off Anakin's - no, the Sith's - remaining organic limbs or let the Sith kill him.

The screaming of the Sith as he burned made Obi-Wan want to retch, and it reminded him that, once upon a time, this monster had been a scared child fresh off a desert planet. For that child, for his padawan, Obi-Wan could not leave the Sith to suffer. He made sure to be quick.

A haze settled around Obi-Wan as he carried Padmé back into her ship and escaped the volcanic planet, bringing her to a medical facility that wouldn't ask too many questions. He knew he needed to check in with Bail and Yoda, but he couldn't face them, not yet. He'd completed his mission, slain the Sith, but he'd also killed his own brother.

Everything he'd built, ravaged and left adust by the savagery of the Dark Side. He felt a little like he'd died with Anakin on Mustafar.

The med droid delivered Padmé and Anakin's children and then seemed very confused about why Padmé was dying herself. Obi-Wan absently mentioned that she'd just fainted on a desert planet after being choked, and the med droid began to do treatment on her lungs, but it was just a little too late. He _was_ paying for silence, not quality.

When Padmé told him that there was still good in Anakin, Obi-Wan said nothing. She would rejoin him in the Force soon enough.

There was no one else to take the twins, so he moved to Tatooine alone. He considered trying to give them to Anakin's step brother, but raising two Force-sensitive children would be difficult for someone who couldn't feel the Force. 

A week into his stay, sleep deprived and half starved trying to take care of Luke and Leia, Obi-Wan saw the ghosts of Qui-Gon and Anakin. He was ninety percent certain that he was suffering from a particularly vivid hallucination. He stared at them, nonplussed, before deciding that he definitely needed more sleep and collapsing onto his cot.

That wasn't the last time he saw the ghosts, far from it. They had decided to haunt him, although Obi-Wan suspected that they were more here for the kids than him, what with the way they doted on Luke and Leia. That was fine. Obi-Wan didn't need anybody to care for him.


End file.
